House Conservatives Have the Power and Should Depose Speaker John Boehner

The “cromnibus” bill is soon to become law. The majority of House and Senate Republicans conspired with President Obama to fund his executive amnesty. Where do conservatives go from here?

Yes, we need to pick up the flag and force Republicans in February to actually fight as they are now promising when funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires, but there is an even more important intervening event that must draw our undivided attention.

The vote on whether John Boehner (R-OH) will be Speaker will occur in January, and 30 conservative House members can deny him re-election. It will be an actual public vote—not a behind-the-scenes, paper ballot vote. Although many would have you believe otherwise, Boehner has not yet been elected Speaker for the new term. House Republicans elected him as their nominee for Speaker in November, but the full House of Representatives needs to vote on his nomination in January.

House conservatives must summon the courage to oppose Boehner’s nomination on the floor in January. It is a moral imperative. You cannot consistently complain about Leadership’s many failures—and the treachery involved with a Speaker fresh off a successful wave election conspiring with President Obama to fund amnesty and enjoy a celebratory phone call in the aftermath—and then vote for him to continue in this role. To paraphrase Albert Einstein, that is the definition of insanity, and it is enabled by a vote for Boehner.

One of the main obstacles to unseating Boehner is that House conservatives sort of like him. You hear them say, “He really is a good guy. He just has the worst job in the world.” What they do not realize is that at all times, Boehner and the entire Leadership team are looking to screw and distract conservatives. Leadership has a phrase for this—its called “member management.” It is code to themselves for outright deception towards those they lead. Most of the time they don’t get caught, but occasionally the corruption is exposed. Boehner’s team lied to Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) to get his vote on the all-important procedural “rule” setting up the debate on the cromnibus. He promised to pull the cromnibus if Stutzman voted for the rule. Stutzman gave his vote, and Boehner went back on his word.

House conservatives need to understand that they are not conspiring against a family member or team member. They are conspiring against an adversary intent on thwarting the change they came to Washington to bring. It is that simple.

Some will argue that a vote against Boehner is a mere protest vote. It is not. There are 30 House conservatives whose vote against Boehner, along with the united front of Democrats voting for Pelosi, could deny him reelection. These 30 would be exercising a veto. There would be no chance of a Democrat becoming Speaker (an obvious point but an argument sure to be advanced by some Republican), because a actual majority of the whole House of Representatives is required. Republicans would simply go back and re-nominate someone else who would not be subsequently vetoed

Think of it as a Supreme Court nomination that needs to be confirmed by the Senate. When the Senate rejects a President’s nominee, it forces the President to go back to the drawing board and nominate someone new that is acceptable to the Senate. The Republican Conference would do that in this analogy by nominating someone that would not be vetoed by the 30.

This is also why the 30 would not need to be unified on who they wanted to replace Boehner—another common problem in removing Boehner. The conspirators can never agree on who the replacement should be. But if you veto Boehner and throw it back to the conference, with a willingness to stand firm on future bad options, House Republicans will eventually gravitate towards a real conservative who is well liked by many Republicans. It may take some time, but it will be worth it.

Let me speak directly to House conservatives for a moment. Are you are going to be complicit in the ongoing speakership of John Boehner by giving him your vote? Are you going to waste the best years of your time in Congress being “managed” with distractions and dishonesty? Or will you fight back?

I’m reminded of the Biblical account of the scouts sent out by Israel as they approached the Promised Land. Ten came back and said the Canaanites were unbeatable and that it would be foolish to enter into Canaan, notwithstanding the support of an all-mighty God. Joshua and Caleb came back and tried to rally their countrymen to arms and to claim what God had promised them. Israel took the recommendation of the 10 timid scouts and was banished to 40 years in the wilderness, until an entire generation had died off—all that is, except Joshua and Caleb. Over the next few weeks, I hope you will have the courage and boldness of Joshua and Caleb to finally say enough is enough—that Boehner must go. Whether conservatives across the country will remain in the political wilderness hangs in the balance.